India win was so special – now let’s do the Aussies again!

I’M already looking forward like an excited child to the back-to-back Ashes
series in 2013. I just can’t wait.

The series win in India — England’s first there for 28 years — has given us
the perfect launchpad for what should be another amazing cricketing year.

There is no doubt we will fancy our chances of retaining the little urn when
Australia arrive in the summer — and keeping hold of it when we go Down
Under next winter.

England’s victory in India was a spectacular achievement by any measure.

I was trying to play down the significance of the series before we arrived
because it was one I desperately wanted to win.

Looking at our future schedule, it is clear I’m not going back to India on a
Test tour — not as a player, anyway — so this was my final chance for
success.

This England team is making a habit of breaking ducks — our first win in
Australia for 24 years and now our first in India since 1984-85. And that’s
all very special.

For me, our victory in Australia two years ago must take precedence because I
was brought up on the Ashes, trying to beat the old enemy.

That will always be the highlight of my career.

But this win is right up there. Of the three biggest wins I’ve been involved
with — the two Ashes series and this one — India stands in the middle.

For me, it tops our win over Australia at home in 2009.

Many pundits insist no team can be classed as great until they win in Asia.

So, even though I’d gone through my career winning the Ashes and having a bit
of personal success, not having won in Asia would always have been levelled
at me and the team.

Now we have the privilege of being able to say we went to India, played on
wickets created to suit the home team and still managed to turn them over.
All in all, it was no mean feat.

That’s why everyone is so happy. We weren’t given a lot of chance to win this
series — especially after losing the First Test — and it’s nice to sit here
with the satisfaction of knowing a lot of people will be eating humble pie
just now.

Even after losing in Ahmedabad, I believed we could turn things round because
India don’t have mystery spinners such as Saeed Ajmal, who caused us so much
grief when we played Pakistan earlier in the year.

I bowl to our batsmen in the nets and know they are good players of spin.

So I was confident that, if they were in the right frame of mind, they could
score big hundreds and dominate bowling attacks. That’s what happened.

We realised after Ahmedabad that we had no chance of winning if we were timid.

That’s why we won the next two Tests — because there was a more aggressive
outlook from the batsmen, coupled with a couple of crazy sessions with the
ball that went our way. I don’t think I’ve been as nervous going into a
day’s play as I was on the final morning in Nagpur.

I was desperate not to bat, which would have meant blocking to try to save the
game.

But Trotty and Belly quelled those nerves immediately.

They were so calm and I felt completely at ease within a handful of overs.

In fact, I slept for most of the morning session, the old
bury-the-head-in-the-sand technique. It was a monumental effort by those
two.

India shot themselves in the foot with the pitch in Nagpur.

They obviously tried to make a turning track but it became flatter and
flatter. We were joking that it would still have been a good pitch next
week.

Our skipper Alastair Cook can’t be praised enough for every aspect of his
game.

I rate the 562 runs he scored in India as far better than the 766 he made in
Australia.

There was no decision review system — if there had been no DRS in Australia he
probably wouldn’t have scored half the runs. When your captain is leading
from the front and scoring so heavily, it gives the rest of the team a
lovely calm feeling.

Chef also led brilliantly in the field, he was awesome — and let’s never
forget those three tons. They really showed who was in charge.

Let’s be honest, 2012 had been a pretty average year for us from the standards
we have attained and expect. We lost Test series to Pakistan away and South
Africa at home.

This was the series out of the whole year that people gave us least chance of
winning.

So there was massive pride and happiness in the changing room after going to
India and becoming the first England side to win a series there in nearly 30
years.

I have a lovely break now until we go to New Zealand in February. It allows me
to sort out one or two niggles — I pulled a calf muscle while batting in
Nagpur — and fully refresh and recharge for the year ahead.

I never apologise about getting excited over the Ashes. We have a huge year
ahead and, after our great win in India, we will be ready for the Aussies.